20 Best Cases for the Apple iPad Air

Posted October 28, 2013

Autumn in the U.S.A. brings cool weather, football, and—a new tradition since 2011—fresh iPads for the holiday shopping season. These tablets generate enough excitement to rival all the eyeballs on the NFL, and for 2013, the new full-size model is the iPad Air, a delicious-looking merger of two of Apple’s most popular brands. As the name suggests, this fifth-gen tablet is radically lighter (just a pound), tossing back the SlimFast with even more abandon than the first MacBook Air did. The iPad Air is trimmer, too, so many older iPad cases won’t fit it perfectly. Seeing as the iPad Air starts at $499, you’ll want a case that’s snug and seamless—so here are 20 of our early favorites.

Apple iPad Air Smart Case

The official iPad protectors are the logical place to start, and Apple produces two of them for the Air that will suit many tastes. The first, the iPad Air Smart Case, holds your precious iPad Air cargo firmly inside, while bringing along a of bit iPhone 5C-style panache: color choices. You can grab the Smart Case in one of six hues: yellow, beige, blue, brown, black, and red. The Smart Case can also fold into a stand a la the Apple Smart Cover (more on that in the next slide), saving you the trouble of holding the device the whole time you want to use it, especially when watching video.

Now, mind you, it’s not cheap: The iPad Air Smart Case will set you back a substantial $79. (Partly that’s because it’s Apple; partly because the Smart Case is leather.) But the wraparound design—it covers the edges and back, not just the screen—delivers peace of mind, and the precise Apple styling should make up for some of the expense.